John Beilein was waving his arms out wide, trying to show a face he tells his players to avoid.

Simulating his German freshman center Moritz Wagner, the Michigan basketball coach was showing how not to complain.

"He's got some European drama to his game, where there's always a foul," Beilein said Monday, grinning. "There's always a red card or a yellow card or whatever it is (in soccer). A lot of drama he has to take out of the game, because the refs don't like that here. You can ask him. We have warned him: The refs won't like you if you get upset on every call. But he's a high-energy guy that gives the team that energy."

Which is the balance the Wolverines are trying to find with Wagner entering tonight's ACC/Big Ten Challenge tip-off against North Carolina State at PNC Arena in Raleigh, N.C.

Since Wagner broke out with a 19-point game against Charlotte at the Battle 4 Atlantis, the coaching staff realizes it can trust him to score, a foreign concept to many recent and current Michigan big men.

Beilein calls it an innate skill, which Wagner (pronounced VAHG-ner) learned growing up as a wing or guard-style player, with the ball in his hands.

The U-M staff wasn't sure how he would take to the physical game and his back to the basket, but he has learned quickly.

Wagner said after the 19-point game he didn't feel the pressure to do it again in the next game versus Texas, and he showed more comfort, scoring seven points and grabbing four rebounds.

"It wasn't like one of those days I hadn't had before. It was one of those days where things happened," Wagner said. "Hopefully I tried to put myself out of the emotional explosion. … It wasn't something new. Of course it was awesome to have a little bit more confidence and think about other things first that helped me to not be nervous in the game."

Changing his mentality from last year's tendency to leak the backcourt after a shot — "a safety," he called it — to U-M's rule that he must crash the boards as the big man is an adjustment, but one he has no problem embracing.

It's more about remembering to do it.

The two games were enough to boost him from the potential fourth big man a week ago to being in the action behind starter Ricky Doyle now.

"He'll be the second big off the bench right now, and he was probably 6-9 or something last year and he continues to grow," said Beilein, who connected with Wagner immediately in the spring when visiting him in Germany. "He's 6-101/2, and if we got to a two-big pinch post type of lineup in the future, he could play either position. He's that skilled to do that."

Wagner's enthusiasm has infected his teammates.

Despite not being a native English speaker, he's fluent and comfortable in the language and has no problem accepting ribbing from coaches and teammates, who were glad to bring him back to earth from the 19-point game by pointing out his zero rebounds.

But every time he scores, every time-out and hustle play, he gets the Wolverines enthused like no one else.

"Right now, we just love Moe's passion," co-captain Caris LeVert said. "We don't really try to navigate that too much. It's very positive to do what he does in the games. We just try to encourage him to keep doing those positive things."

When Beilein was waving his arms and simulating Wagner's foul pleas, the freshman sat in a chair, chuckling. But he's also listening to the talk about his "European drama."

"I don't know Coach is talking about," he said, grinning, clearly joking. "Of course, I always had that kind of with me as a player. I know what he's talking about, and I'm working on that. Sometimes I'm watching the video of myself, and it's like, 'I say, what the hell am I doing?' — excuse my language.